


Interview with a 'Prisoner'

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Series: Midnight Verse [22]
Category: Transformers Generation One
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Future, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-22
Updated: 2013-02-22
Packaged: 2017-12-03 05:46:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/694831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Optimus Prime goes to speak with his alternate... in the Autobot brig</p>
            </blockquote>





	Interview with a 'Prisoner'

In order to get a chance to speak with Megatron without having a barrier between them, Optimus Prime knew he had to arrange for two of his mechs to be occupied elsewhere. Red Alert was detailed to work with the Protectobots at a human installation to make certain that mech didn't have a processor meltdown over the threat to his Prime. Prowl, however, could not be as easily sent on an errand, and so Optimus asked Sideswipe to occupy the tactician. 

Sunstreaker did not like this plan, but then, few Autobots did. To calm them, Optimus did consent to letting Sunstreaker and Ironhide both share monitoring the situation in the brig. After all, despite having had the fusion cannon removed and Ratchet having personally disabled the morning star, Megatron was dangerous. 

With his preparations made, the leader of the Autobots went to confront his nemesis, passing himself into the brig where Megatron was... sitting quietly? Even with his suspicions, Optimus found that sight somewhat unnerving.

"Megatron," he began, staying near the energy field that kept both of them from being able to transform or exit. "It seems odd to me that you would go out of your way to challenge me, alone, in the manner you did. Are you... well?"

Megatron's crimson optics came fully online at his voice, the grey mech tipping his helm to the side and back just a trifle, enough to look at him evenly. 

"If you had a single microt of sense in your processor, Prime," his oldest foe said, voice the same low, rough rasp as ever, "you would have torn my spark out of my chest while I was already disabled."

"So I was informed by my entire staff... minus one," Optimus said wearily. "However, given intelligence that I have in my own keeping, I felt that such a move would have been both dishonorable and potentially fatal to both our sides in this war."

His first words gained a short, sharply amused burst of laughter from Megatron, and then those red optics narrowed, white sparking in the very center of them as his attention focused more sharply. 

"One of these vorns, Optimus, your 'honor' will destroy you -- but your words gain my interest. What threat to your mechs do you see in my deactivation? The Decepticons would scatter, making them... somewhat easier targets, even for your little cadre of domestics." 

"Perhaps that conversation would be easier if we were both to understand why you were here, which I confess I do not, Megatron," Optimus pointed out to him. "However, I will elaborate on one thing: it has come to my attention that there is likely a saboteur in your own ranks working against you. With subtlety, as opposed to Starscream's methodology."

Megatron's optics sheened over with pure rage-white for a few long moments before the gunformer shifted his frame, a near-silent intake of air the only other signal of his reactions. That was more than worrying. Megatron had been so prone to fits of rage since their reactivation on Earth, even for a time before that. To see that focused control now... "So certain the source is among my faction, Prime?" 

His own optics flared hot blue for just a moment before Optimus caught the jagged edge of searing anger on behalf of his people in Megatron's words. Granted, he'd almost been able to see something similar coming from Jazz and Prowl, but not to the extent of what they thought they were facing.

"Positive, Megatron. My best people are trying to undermine the effects, though." He was very uncertain as to how Megatron was keeping himself in check. Was this an effect of the nanovirus? Why hadn't he thought to actually bring the inoculation strain with him to deliver?

"Why?" The word was nearly a hiss, rather than Megatron's usual rasp. "What _possible_ benefit do you receive from aiding your enemies, Prime? The degradation of our processors can only benefit your 'cause', while the restoration..." 

A vicious, malicious smile flashed across the gunformer's faceplates -- half-familiar, long-forgotten expression from his days as one of Cybertron's gladiatorial champions -- for a moment. 

Optimus squared himself as he faced his long-time opponent. "... the restoration may show you that our species is dying out, and that we can only overcome this together. It may let you finally grasp that neither I, nor my people, want the old ways you originally fought against. It..." He cut himself off, clenching a fist. "I will not win this war through attrition, nor through your side starving to deactivation, Megatron."

For the first time in a epoch, he saw a flicker of interest in Megatron's optics, and the other mech's massive engines rumbled low. 

"I will grant that we have lost much," the gunformer said, each word rasped as though it was ripped from his processor. "But for _you_ , Matrix-carrier, **Prime** , to say you do not want to return to the past... What **_do_** you want?!" 

Optimus cautiously came closer, despite the roar of that question. He sat down on the other, more narrow bench in the cell to look across at Megatron, letting that question turn in his processor. The easy answer was 'peace'. The more difficult ones... those were what Megatron wanted from him, and if he were going to save them all, perhaps he had to give some of that to his enemy.

"I want freedom for all. Both from tyranny and from those who use 'protection' as a form of slavery," he told Megatron. "I want our people to survive. I want our scientists to find a way to renew Cybertron. I want us all to go home."

"Freedom?" Megatron vented air sharply, his optics burning a steady red as he looked at the Prime. "What are you calling freedom? Under what leadership? Cybertron was a dying world, our species clawing at each other over scraps of resources, well before the Overlord's none-too-soon deactivation!"

"Why would I want a return to that, Megatron?" Optimus met those burning optics steadily as he searched back into his memories for the right words. "Your beginnings were unfair and deadly, but at least you knew some compensation as you gained prestige and fame. Such luxuries were denied to those who kept Cybertron actually functioning. The ability to host lavish parties and make resounding decrees came on the backs of most of my army, and many are only with me because they opposed your form of rebellion."

Those powerful engines rumbled again, low, dark note in the hum as his optics searched across Optimus' faceplates, out across the lines of his shoulders, as one hand flexed at his side. 

"Optimus," Megatron said after almost two breems of silence, "you may have a point."

For a long instant, Optimus Prime's processors were faltering. That was completely unexpected, and he'd only just begun to wind up for the argument that should have proceeded from this point, based on all of their past encounters.

"Megatron... you know of the virus. Do you know of the vaccine? Have you had it yet?" Optimus asked, rather than push along those lines any further... mostly because Optimus was uncertain how to, in the face of that concession. This was unlike anything that had ever happened in all their long war. 

Megatron actually laughed at that, leaning back against the wall slightly as his optics took an amused tint. "My conniving viper of a second seems to have decided he wanted my processor functioning -- I can hardly wait to hear his reasoning on why," his mouthplates quirked in a slight smile, "and he pushed _something_ into my systems. Rather it has any relation to whatever 'vaccine' your people have found, I have no id-- " 

He stopped in mid-syllable, his optics flashing with white again. "Well. No. It very likely does, but that is irrelevant at the moment."

The source of Megatron's assistance gave Optimus several moments' pause. He found it odd that this far into the war, Starscream could still bypass Megatron's defenses enough to accomplish such a feat. Then again, Starscream had managed to survive Megatron, and his own ambitions, this long by _some_ means. He was fairly certain he did not wish to pry at that any deeper, lest he get an answer. 

"I will point out that an independent operation of my own people led to the inadvertent cooperation he provided," Optimus Prime said, despite himself. It was Starscream, and the mech always wiggled out of trouble, but Skyfire _had_ gone to enable other plans. It was only fair to point that out. "Our science and medical team has crafted an inoculation that builds off Starscream's research, and is effective at keeping the nanovirus at bay," he added. "I... wished to open negotiations directly with you, but our last battle left the logical avenue through Soundwave, and I believe Blaster has already handled those negotiations."

Optimus watched Megatron intently, trying to determine if there might be hope of peace at long last. He knew that there would be many who would not care for a peace that came without accountability, but at this point, Optimus Prime merely wished the war to end. Yes, atrocities had been committed, and he was not even pretending Autobot hands were clean in that regard. But continued fighting, even to just bring justice for those destroyed in this war, would only leave their race closer to the brink of extinction than they already were. 

Megatron hissed air through his vents, exasperated and annoyed, but he nodded once, as though he were willing to take that into consideration. 

"Given the number of his symbionts your mechs captured, I can see why. That inoculation was sent with the returned cassettes?" 

"Yes." Optimus nodded once. "Although... it was hypothesized that Soundwave himself was already inoculated by Starscream, via Laserbeak. Which is why that battle turned so sharply."

He could see Megatron putting that through his processor, analyzing it. He took several moments to decide, then nodded slowly. 

"That would explain his sudden malfunction, making it a rational assumption. Though the thought of Laserbeak and Starscream working together is... more than slightly distressing."

Optimus let out a small laugh at that. The antipathy between the flying cassette and the Air Commander was no secret, and had not been for many vorns. "I can see where it would be, Megatron. However, Starscream was compromised during his … negotiations by one of my fliers, which is how we learned of it." He could give that much information. "It explained certain lapses in our own intelligence efforts, for instance."

"Dare I ask?" Megatron lifted one optic ridge, his voice dry and only faintly interested. 

Optimus weighed the cost and possible gain over being honest with his longtime enemy. He focused his optics on Megatron intently. "I have never, through all this, wished the demise of any of the classes of mechs that have, almost unilaterally, joined your forces. And yet, we misinterpreted the oddities of your forces, and never saw that your army was starving."

Megatron rumbled, low and dangerously thoughtful, optics flickering over him. " _Really_ , Prime? When at every turn you destroyed more refined energon than Cybertron has seen in vorns? What did you **think** we were surviving on?"

"The same things our scientists process for us... solar radiation, wind turbine energy, some hydroelectricity," Optimus told him casually. "You have Starscream, even if Shockwave is not here. You have the Constructicons. We assumed that like us, you had energy collectors to make use of the young nature of this planet, especially with the currents so near your base."

Megatron's optics sparked and flared, his hands curling into tight fists as he stared across the cell, but he was silent. Only the uncanny sheen of those burning crimson optics gave away any of what was going on behind the gunformer's set, perfectly impassive expression.

Eventually, after breems that stretched out like they were vorns, those optics focused fully on Optimus' face. "There are moments you do more damage with your infernal honesty than I do with my cannon," he rasped past nearly locked dental plates. 

Optimus had the grace to give a discordant, almost apologetic burst of static at that. "I want to help end this plague on us, and hopefully... you and I can negotiate at least an armistice to see a way to rebuild our world at last."

"Then we have at least the desire to end this in common," Megatron rumbled, expression slipping back towards interest and thought. "As to an armistice -- it seems as though there is a greater threat to Cybertron than each other, at the moment. Some being created that virus. I want to know who, and why, and I want it deactivated and smelted down." 

"Certainly. This undermines everything I believe in, by robbing a mech of their very self in critical ways. Jazz has been searching the code to be certain it will not allow a remote hack as its end-product." Optimus would take what he could get, though he wished more.

"The most capable can not prove they are with their processors compromised," Megatron said, the low, rough rasp of his voice sounding like an agreement. "There is **no** use in feuding with each other while those that did this wait for us to destroy each other. We yet disagree on Cybertron's path forward, but I believe we agree that it is **only** for Cybertronians." 

He tipped his helm to the side, a little, studying Optimus' face. His counterpart nodded, taking that for what it was, even as he ached for Megatron to remember the words he'd once told a dock worker... and to actually believe in them.

"Agreed, Megatron."

"Then let us get on with it." 

Optimus nodded, then cocked his head. "Do you wish to have our vaccine? To... supplement Starscream's creative ability?"

Megatron considered that for a moment, then nodded. "It will prove an interesting comparison, if nothing else." 

Optimus clicked his internal comms on, reaching for Ratchet. ::I need one inoculation for Megatron. I would prefer _you_ prepare it and inspect it, as I may be on the verge of forging something of a working alliance and wish to take no chances.::

::You have taken complete leave of your senses,:: Ratchet snapped back at him instantly, ::if you think the Slag-Maker will hold to any bargain you think you're making. But I'll bring you the slagging inoculation.:: 

::I knew you would help me best, Ratchet. I don't trust him. But it may be our best hope at this point,:: he added, letting his optimism bleed through.

::Maybe not _complete_ leave,:: was Ratchet's response, grudging and snappish. ::I'll see you in a breem or so.:: 

Optimus let the contact break, then nodded to Megatron. "I've asked Ratchet to prepare one and bring it." He did not say why he had chosen his senior medic to personally do this; Megatron would know the trust levels involved between them in something like this. "After you have rebooted fully, we can discuss more about how to catch the culprit?"

Megatron nodded, steady and resolved, determined as he had always been once he had decided.


End file.
